NASCAR Considering Removal of Jackmen?

IMO, we will begin hearing more about things coming into Nascar that we previously hadn't thought much of. I think shorter race weekends will become normal and other things that will "force" teams to cut expenses will be looked at seriously and cost saving measures will become de rigueur. Nascar and the tracks are in great shape due to the TV contracts but teams are vulnerable and while I think fields will eventually become smaller you don't want it to happen all at once. Nascar will survive and with new leadership could even thrive and enjoy a resurgence after this period of cuts is done with.
 
CJ Bennett said:
They should have to use a donut spare tire
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they are so busy jumping thru the government hoops it's a wonder anything they make runs very well. In typical ant hill thinking spare tires are not needed. With your trusty cell phone, triple A is only a call away.
 
LARRY said:
They should have to use the Jack that comes with the car from the factory.
Also the lug wrench.
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The scissor jacks would be great! Of course it would really really really extend the times of those pit stops
 
Maybe the jackman could keep his job and become the water and windshield man
 
StandOnIt said:
that is an idea, but then you are going to have mechanics that can work and pit the car..that guy is going to make close to what two guys make, maybe more. if saving money is the goal that could backfire also.
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I'd rather take10-15 guys to the track and pay them more, than take about 30 guys to the track. No matter what you pay a crewman, it costs the same to feed, cloth, transport, equip, per diem and shelter them. Never mind any other fringe benefits and the insurance you have to carry on those part time pit crew members. Not that I didn't already know it, but I was reminded of it in the press release about Hendrick Motorsports promoting some people. They have 600 employees! 600 people to field FOUR cars. They don't even have all of that Stewart-Haas work to blame for some of those people. In 1984, Harry Gant narrowly lost the Cup title to Terry Labonte. There were less than twenty people on the entire payroll, and yes, they built their own engines, although not their chassis. If you want to know where we have gone off the rails on costs, look right there. All the air jacks in the world are not going to make up for having 150 employees per car.
 
My thoughts on this... HELL F*&king NO! Out of all the elements of the race, I LOVE how the current pit stops work. The athleticism, the complexity, and most of all the variability. Pit stops are one of the big ways to shake up the running order and provide better racing. . And why does that happen? It's the HUMAN element, duh!

Remember Darlington last year? Who was the dominant car in that race? Not the 78.

Replacing the jackman with a mechanical system is going the complete wrong direction, taking more variability, more risk, and more excitement out of the sport. Never mind that pit stops are one of the last vestiges of "stock" cars. 5 lugs, floor jacks, air impact wrenches just like you see at jiffy lube. That part needs to be expanded, not reduced, in this sport. For that reason I would be ok with going to standard air wrenches and equipment, but better yet, why not mandate stock or off-the-shelf tools for the pit stops? (Minus the gas can, more on that later) Every team has some kind of tool sponsor, and on top of that tool manufacturer rivalry is a big deal, especially for power tools. Let it play out on the track.

Plus, air jacks would potentially disrupt the cadence of the current pit stops. The reason 5 out of 6 guys are hustling trying to make every second count is because of what the limiting factor in a pit stop is, the tires. Because dumping two cans of fuel is faster than changing 4 tires (and one can is faster than changing 2 tires), then the crew in charge of the tires must hustle to complete their job. Don't we all like seeing that? If you don't, watch an indycar pit stop, where air-jacks and single lugs make changing tires quicker than fueling. What do you get? 4 guys lazily changing the tires then waiting around a few more seconds while the gas man holds a hose. Boring. Don't do anything to speed up the tires without speeding up the gas.

I can't believe NASCAR is considering this under "cost savings". We all know where the real costs are coming from and it's not the lone jackman running around the car. But NASCAR doesn't have the guts to try and stop the engineering arms race that's killing this sport.
 
F1 has the most boring pit stops. A mass of people surround the car to change tires in a couple seconds, you can't really see much - blink and you miss it. They use low tech levers to raise the car, it takes one guy in the front and one in the back.

The point is that pit stops are fun to watch and the jack man is a part of it.
 
I wouldn't say NASCAR is the only form of racing where pit performance matters but there are a lot of different pieces to be put together if air jacks are going to happen, and I'm really not sure at all it'd be cheaper than eliminating one person from the team, and the safety benefit would probably only be marginal at best. All that on top of the fact that most NASCAR fans enjoy pit stops as is and this would likely not go over well at all. If this is NASCAR's bright idea of cost-cutting...well, I am less than impressed.
 
I don't feel like digging through all the posts, but wouldn't air jacks make the stops so fast they couldn't get the car full of fuel?
 
Zerkfitting said:
F1 has the most boring pit stops. A mass of people surround the car to change tires in a couple seconds, you can't really see much - blink and you miss it. They use low tech levers to raise the car, it takes one guy in the front and one in the back.

The point is that pit stops are fun to watch and the jack man is a part of it.
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I love F1 Pit stops. One lug nut, as many guys as you want over the wall, in and out in less than 4 seconds. Then again, I like how F1 handles restarts a lot better than NASCAR's manipulation of the race via pit stops.
 
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